


Scarring

by 9_of_Clubs



Category: Hannibal (TV), Red Dragon - Thomas Harris
Genre: Healing, M/M, Melancholy, Mukozuke related, Scars, Their relationship hurts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-29
Updated: 2014-03-29
Packaged: 2018-01-17 11:47:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1386496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/9_of_Clubs/pseuds/9_of_Clubs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They've both scarred each other in similar ways...But a scar means the wound is healing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scarring

His fingers trace the long scars that run down Hannibal’s wrists and Hannibal does not pull away. Sometimes he does, in these moments where Will’s morbidity mixes with his anger and then twists up with his guilt. Sometimes, when Will’s fingers reach for the ravaged skin, there’s a shadow that falls across Hannibal’s face, equal parts terrifying and inviting. The look stays for a heartbeat before it locks away and then Hannibal, with all the grace of a sleek, savage, beast, pulls his arm out of reach and disappears, leaves Will to the twisting pit of his emotions.

But other nights, like tonight, a quiet stillness surrounding them both, he stays frozen. He neither looks at Will, nor looks away, but lets him do as he will. It’s as close as Will has ever gotten to an apology, these touches. He knows Hannibal doesn’t wait for one, just as he himself does not hold his breath. They both bear each other’s scars from the hands of another...Never bold enough to have raised the knife to the other’s flesh themselves, but the knife raised all the same. So Hannibal looks at the gnarled skin of Will’s cheek with something like regret flashing through his eyes, while Will touches Hannibal’s wrists with what alternates between a soft reverence and an angry scolding and no words pass between them. 

They speak of the past only in the language of sensation. 

Will leans in to press his lips to Hannibal’s as his fingers continue their exploration, tasting the sadness he knew he would find, bitter but lovely on his tongue. It’s such a rare emotion on Hannibal, this loss folded into desire, desire to keep Will, desire to have him. The scars bring it to life in the other, much as Hannibal’s touch to his cheek always awakens anger in Will. Through the scars they find the emotions they wish in the other, that only they can bring out fully. Hannibal becomes human when his wounds are pressed, Will becomes other. 

Their chests move slowly together, Hannibal’s breath jumping into a gasp as Will digs nails slightly against the raised skin and then lets go. 

“I love you.” He breathes in Hannibal’s ear, pulling away, the other still unmoving, still in transition. Will watches him gather himself back together, long fingers pulling the sleeve Will pushed away back into place.

Will watches the thin, mottled, marks until they disappear. They’re a scar of their own, he and Hannibal, a wound slowly knitting its way back together again. But a scar means the wound is healing.

**Author's Note:**

> I know that Hannibal does stab Will in RD, however for the sake of my parallelism, I've chosen to forgo that detail. It may or may not happen in the show.


End file.
